Intergalactic Summit

The entire purpose of this game you call a war can be summed up quite neatly as "bread and circus".

What General Inhonores quite accurately points out here is the "bread" part of the scheme. Destruction and violence boost demand and fuel the economy. As long as the main industrial base of each participant remains intact and largely safe from destruction by the supposed enemy and the natural resources required to fuel said industry remain abundant, this economic boom can last indefinitely.

As for the circus part, that's where you lot come in.

You may play at being soldiers fighting a war. You may even trick yourselves into thinking that you actually are soldiers. But what you are is gladiators. Your role in this disgusting business isn't to put an end to the fighting, or even to make any kind of permanent difference. You are there to be seen, a spectacle to be gawked at. You are showmen, whose function is to entertain the crowd. You're not there to defend lives, assets or territory. The only thing you are there to defend at all is ethnocentric identity, by reminding the spectators that "over on this side, we are Gallente, over there, they are Caldari, and never the two shall meet, unless it's with weapons in hand". Exchange these for "Amarr" or "Minmatar" as appropriate.

Like you point out, General Inhonores, there is no end in sight. The reason for this is simple: The game is designed to be unwinnable. The participants have all agreed to keep the sport confined to a limited number of systems, leaving the bulk of each empire's territorial, industrial and human resources intact and largely safe from harm. And the big heroes of the game, who fly out to win laurels and accolades on behalf of their sponsors, wake up in fresh clones when they are killed, free to return to the bloodletting right away.

Sure, sometimes one team or the other will drive the other back across the arena. Maybe even claim the entire thing for a short, fleeting moment in a victory that will surely be remembered, even though the only thing that you actually win is glory. For a short, sweet while, you can get to call yourselves champions of the arena, and be celebrated by the people.

But after the bodies are dragged away and the sand is raked and replaced within the arena, you must know, as all gladiators do, that the games will resume in the morning. The make-believe enemy will be there, waiting upon the sand for you - or between the stars, if you insist. And the crowd, the crowd will be waiting, too. Waiting for blood, waiting for you.

And you love it, don't you, the way they chant your names?

Really? You may underestimate the willingness of humanity to believe what its own tribe tells it. It takes a clear mind and a steady hand to look an enemy in the eye, affirm her humanity and your understanding that, but for a sad trick of fate, you might have been friends-- and then shoot her in the head.

Some of us can do this. It should not be thought too much of a flaw in others that they should have to see the foe as evil before they can do the same.

... I suspect that relatively few capsuleers actually belong to this latter group, though. Most who try to paint the foe as evil likely do so as a rhetorical tactic, or to tell themselves they are heroes for fear of what they will see in the mirror, or perhaps out of habit.



Ah, General, you really have gotten just a bit perceptive ... except ...

When you take a long trip somewhere, how often is it for only one reason? Perhaps it's primarily to visit your mother, but what about getting to see the old house? Do some sightseeing? Make a side-trip to visit a friend? Shake off a bit of ennui back at home? The stew of human (and infomorph, to the degree there's any difference) behavior is quite the mulligan, Seriphyn. I almost never run errands personally unless I also want to stretch my legs.

So how much more complicated are the factors driving a war likely to be?

You've likely spotted one. Good for you. ... But you ignore others (such as two hundred years of bitter anger and humiliation) at your considerable peril.

... In fact, I'd even suggest that this factor is tertiary, if only because primary purposes tend to get put in memos, memos tend to get leaked, and people tend to get upset when they learn that they lost family members to raise a profit margin. That's one of the several places we got Heth from (speaking of complex motives).

Megacorporate arms manufacturers profit from supplying a war, yes. They then turn around and profit from supplying a peace. They're cunning that way. A good strategist learns to find advantage in any outcome, and the only megacorporate leader who hasn't been steeped to the eyeballs in that school of thought since, probably, childhood is Tibus Heth.

About the only people your, ah, accusations probably strike squarely would be beings like you and me.

Horrors! We're monstrous, amoral, semi-immortal mercenaries whose entire economy reeks of blood. Who ever would have guessed?

I for one will act as a gentleman and try not to explode this conversation into related topics.

So, Federation is suddenly interested in the loss of human life?

Heavens, where were they to condemn the Republic's attack on Yulai, Elders' genocide over Sarum Prime or the constant Republic Fleet attacks against humanitarian groups like Salvation Angels?

I suppose preaching one thing whilst endorsing its counterpart done by someone else for the sake of influx of cheap workforce from the Republic is more relevant.

Feel free to preach your federal propaganda, mr. Inhonores. You might want to aim at someone who will actually believe it though.

It is careless to call the war 'idiotic', as people are still losing their lives over this so-called idiocy.

Again, there are those who may be offended by how I've painted the State. It is not propaganda to point out that the Caldari State launched the first official offensive action. It is not propaganda to point out that the Caldari State is a militaristic society. It is not propaganda to point out that the Caldari State is led by a man who would be happy to destroy the Federation.

Of course I'm still going to spout rhetoric in favour of the Federation, because I am a Federation soldier, at the end of it. More of you are interested in getting along with others, by tweaking your personal beliefs and the words you speak so that it is not objectionable, than having the conviction and determination to serve your cause and people unabashed.

I swear your ears are about as sensitive as Amarr-Gallentean mothers watching the vids.

My goodness, what has the leader of NAERY done now, other than killed dozens if not hundreds of FDU aligned ships and served the State without any consideration for his own sacrifices? Oh wait, I think I already answered that.



I know answer to this question. My enemy is Seriphyn Inhonores and I will not stop fighting this war and causing untold destruction until his smug face and crimes are eradicated from face of New Eden. I am not fueled by business, glory or ideology, only by raw unflinching hatred of this man.

As a Caldari, perhaps you do not realize that government, people, and beliefs can and do all exist independent of one another, M Khross. It is popularly known at that in the State, there is no distinction between the three.

I criticized capitalism in both the Federation and the State, yes. However, the Federation also stands for self-determination and free will, independent of its current governments or its current economic system. As a Gallentean, it is very possible to support the Federation while being against it, strictly speaking.

That just makes it an expensive and tragic idiocy, General. That doesn't stop it from being idiotic.

One would think water incapable of breaking rock from a quick glance or ignorant observation. One would mock it as it crashes upon the shores and rocks in vain, cascading left and right with no visible effect. Yet, if one watches long enough and observes carefully, the constant and resolute flow of water will wear down even the mightiest mountain, breaking its foundation with steady resolve and uncompromising determination.

History is filled with men like you, Thessalonia. Men who say that all the efforts of another are for naught, men who see no immediate change or outcome and decry those trying for lack of results. Just because you don't see the results doesn't mean they are not there.

Maybe my efforts will be for naught, but I would rather try and fail than do nothing at all. Keep your criticisms for those who will be deterred by them.

Who are you, and what have you done with Diana Kim. In all seriousness, that was a surprisingly good and thought out post. You may have a 'like'.

Here is the issue with your faction war: There is no defined end point. The very rules under which you operate prevent any resolution, as the Caldari should be aware.

Remember, Malcolm, that by any sane definition of victory, the Caldari won against the Gallente when they took the entire stock of 'legal' conflict systems. The war should have been over, or extended beyond those systems to the systems beyond, depending on what basis one was able to generate a just cause.

So why didn't it extend or stop? Because, frankly, you are still politically useful to those behind your actions: The baseliner politicians and systems that you follow. Your purpose is not to win, it is to prevent a larger and complete war from breaking out due to the calls everpresent that "Something must be done about our enemies".

So you will fight, and your crews will die anonymous and, yes, valiant and yet ultimately vain deaths, because you have got it into your head that you are fighting for a cause.

So. if you are a logical man and I know you are, you now realize are fighting to provide an outlet before pressures explode into a worse conflict. As my colleague put it, you are a circus, a gladiator act. Surely this is worthy. Right?

No, it isn't. The fact of the matter is that you have become embroiled in a meatgrinder war. There is no end in sight. There is no prize to be won. When you conquer the Gallente in the legal systems, you will stop there, or you will try to press forward. If the former, you will find yourself rebuffed in time, as they push forward from their home systems. If the latter, you will find your ships shutting down as CONCORD presses the little red button that gives them power over you, because you will no longer be serving your purpose.

In short, Malcolm, you are only useful because you are on a leash.